Director: Gore Verbinski

What seems like a normal evening for the patrons in an L.A. diner, is anything but, when a stranger (Sam Rockwell) dressed in, seemingly, a plastic mac with random items glued to it, storms in claiming to be from the future. Not only the future, but a dark future which is leading to the destruction of humanity. But there is a group of people in this diner who are the secret to changing the future and saving mankind. In this, his 117th attempt, will he pick the right mix of people to save humanity, or will his latest mission be doomed again.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is quite the mix, a sci-fi-comedy-horror that borrows from Groundhog Day to Ghostbusters. It comes with plenty of action set pieces and  works for most of its 134 minutes, before it runs out of steam towards the end.

In its first two thirds it’s full of intrigue, funny, and shifts along as you try to understand where it’s heading and why its quirky set of characters are chosen. The film delivers some reflections on society touching on school shootings, social media, AI, the risk to the fabric of society, as well as comments on the selling of alternative realities and mobile phone obsession. None particularly subtly, although its take on  school shootings is very well done.

Performances are good. With Sam Rockwell, perfectly cast as the mysterious time traveller, with a mission which may or may not be real. Others offer some strong support, especially Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz, who provide the most intriguing back stories.

But the film, as it goes on, feels like it loses its way, with an urge to throw in one more set piece, one more twist, before it throws everything it has left, onto the screen in its wild finale.

The film looks good and it’s fun nods to other films and genres are enjoyable.

While it outstays its welcome a little and is a tad overcooked at the end, overall it’s an enjoyable and fun ride.

Director: Emerald Fennell

Young Cathy’s life is changed when her father brings home a young nameless boy, a pet, who she names Heathcliff. Their relationship grows through childhood but when we meet their adult versions of (Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi), life is different. Cathy’s father has gambled away his money, leaving them poor and the house dilapidated. When “The Heights” gets new neighbours, Edgar Linton(Shazad Latif) and his young ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver), Cathy has a chance of a new life. When she agrees to marry Edgar, it starts a chain of events that takes everyone’s life through happiness, darkness, revenge and tragedy.

It’s a film that has raised controversy, but having never read the novel, I came to this with no preconceptions.

The film is big and gothic, melodramatic, often dark, sometimes ridiculous, blancmange of a film and I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it.

It’s a film about intensity and relationships, unhealthy relationships. Whether that is the one between Cathy and Heathcliff. Isabella’s obsessions or the one between Cathy and Nellie (Hong Chau), Cathy’s childhood “companion”. It is these relationships, for both their good, but often toxic nature, that gives the film its darkness.

Performances are strong. Elordi and Robbie are its core. But they are supported well. Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper’s young Cathy and Heathcliff. Alison Oliver takes Isabella from a naive youngster, to a dangerous willing participant. Hong Chau’s capture Nellie’s endless exasperation with Cathy’s childish entitled behaviour. But it’s Martin Clunes that steals the show, flipping from bumbling but good hearted to increasingly bitter, violent and cynical.

Alongside all this. The film looks fabulous, beautifully bold and gothic, reds, greens, raging skies, opulence and poverty. Charlie XCX’s score also works a treat.

While it can often be overblown, there is enough in its darkness and obsessions that keeps you engrossed.

It won’t work for everyone, if you don’t go with Fennell’s version, you just won’t, but if you do it’s an enjoyable ride.

Director: Bradley Cooper

Inspired by the real life experience of Liverpool stand up comedian, John Bishop, Is This Thing On? Explores the life and relationship of Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess (Laura Dern) Novak. We meet them with a marriage that has slowly died. They choose to “call it” which leaves Alex alone wandering the street of New York. Where he comes across a comedy club and finds himself on stage and the first steps into a new life. Tess also starts to rebuild and rediscover her own passions. But when Tess discovers Alex’s new life it reawakens old feelings between the two and gives them a chance to revisit their marriage and see if their new perspectives can help rekindle it.

This is an enjoyable warm and touching film, that while built around Alex’s move into comedy, isn’t really what it’s about.

It’s about life and how relationships can be hard as people can get lost in the day to day and lose sight of who they and their partners are. There is little in the way of melodrama, or histrionics, with the marriage breakdown shown as a sad inevitably rather than a fiery fall out. And as they reignite the relationship, it moves slowly and naturally and encounters problems on the way.

The film works, in no small part, because of the natural and believable performances from Arnett and Laura Dern. Believable as a couple and as lost individuals. There’s great support from Blake Kane and Calvin Knegten as the couple’s two sons, as well Christine Ebersole and Ciaran Hinds as Alex’s parents.

The film is shot hidden camera style, following the characters through their trials and tribulations, leaving you as an intrigued observer. It has you on stage with Arnett as you see him at close quarters as he fumbles his way into a standup career.

The script moves along well and as you’d expect, and is thoughtful, sad, funny and hopeful.

And it is the film’s heart that makes it work. A film about losing yourself and your love, but showing how, for those who love each other, there is a way back.

Director: Oliver Hermanus

After meeting at a Boston college in the early 1900’s, musical scholars Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor) set off on a journey across the United States, recording voices and songs from small communities to catalogue musical moments in history. During the journey the men’s relationship develops as they become closer emotionally and sexually. Once the journey is over, the men drift apart; But even after Lionel moves to Europe, their feelings and memories don’t fade.When he returns to the US, to see his sick mother, he yearns to see David again and begins to understand how, failing to act on your passions and avoiding commitment, maybe something you can never change.

The History of Sound is an exploration of love, longing and regret and the strong part music plays in many lives, whether that is in its ability to tell stories, bring communities together or the way it takes you back to a place, a time and memories. But, while it has two warm and thoughtful central performances, for a film that is built around emotion, it felt strangely cold and distant, never fully engaging me.

It is a very well-made film. Mescal and O’Connor are two convincing leads as friends and lovers. They capture the feeling of longing and distance as the two, Mescals Lionel particularly, run from their feelings and commitments. The collection of the music in the first half of the film, is beautifully done, with each vignette capturing the meaning of the music and the community it represents, as they commit their songs to wax disks.

Which is why, its lack of emotional engagement is a bit of a surprise. For all of its heart, I did find it difficult to fully commit to. It feels like it never more than scratches the surface of the story, never fully exploring the why, the changing lives of its musical contributors, or why they make the choices they do.

In the end, for its promise and solid performances the film is one that washes over you, rather than fully pulling you in.

Director: Nia DaCosta

Picking up from the previous film, Spike (Alfie Williams) finds himself in the lair of the Jimmy’s, a rag tag group, in velour tracksuits and taking on the infected lands without fear, under the cult like leadership of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). While the Jimmy’s give Spike safety from the infected, it comes at a price, as the Jimmy’s follow the vicious and vile instructions of their leader. Elsewhere Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) continues his work giving remembrance to victims of the contagion. He also finds a new friend in infected Alpha “Samson” (Chi Lewis-Parry), which gives him hope for the future. But when these two worlds collide, it changes everything.

Following on from 28 Years later was always going to be tough,especially in the hands of a new director and without the certainty of a third film. But Nia DaCosta absolutely nails it in this second part of the now confirmed trilogy.

Without the certainty of a third part, the story is self contained. It focuses on the Jimmy’s fantastically led by O’Connell’s satanic Crystal. Alongside the story of Fiennes’s Dr Kelson and his attempts to find humanity behind the infection in his relationship with Samson.

It takes inspiration from films such as A Clockwork Orange and Frankenstein, using them well, with DaCosta giving a master class in hint rather than show horror gore and gives an engrossing and tense addition to the series.

Performances are great. Fiennes’s Kelson is the heart of the film, believing there is hope for humanity and for the infected. O’Connell’s Crystal is the polar opposite, personifying evil as he acolytes deliver their charity. But it is delivered with subtlety as we see how is twisted belief system has dictated who he is. Alfie Williams while less prominent supports well, as does Erin Kellyman as a Jimmy who Spike sees as a way out from the horrors of Crystals twisted view.

The script balances the darkness with a light touch of humour. Balancing hope with desperation as it leads to its wild ride finale.

Bone Temple is an outstanding addition to the “28” world.

Director: Hikari

Phillip (Brendan Fraser) is an American actor living in Tokyo. Struggling for work he is hired by Rental Family, a company which provides actors to play stand-in family members and friends for strangers. While reluctant he takes the job and is soon put to work as a pretend Groom. He then moves on to longer term projects, including acting as an father to a young girl and as a journalist profiling a retired actor worried that he his work is been forgotten. As Philip becomes emotionally attached to his clients the line between acting and reality blurs. And when lines are crossed, there are real life consequences that puts the business and Philip’s life in Japan at risk

Rental Family, is a gentle and warm look at life. The premise is based on real Japanese Rental Family companies. It explores loneliness and the idea of what is and isn’t true about any relationships. It does all this as it meanders through its 110 minutes.

It’s a film that doesn’t ask too many hard questions, but it does poke at some interesting ones. Hikari looks at a culture where people would rather hire an actor than tackle a problem. But it also looks sympathetically at those who are alone, or need help and how a stranger, even one getting paid, can make a huge difference to someone’s life.

That’s where the film works for me, it is those little explorations of life and the memories we build. Shown beautifully In the relationship between Philip and the actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto), who is not only worried about being forgotten but worries he will forget those whose memory he keeps alive.

Brendan Fraser, is perfect in the central role. A tall ungainly American who never quite fits in, but wants to. He’s well supported, Shannon Mahina Gorman as the young girl Mia is convincing, as is Emoto, who is the film’s emotional heart.

Providing a thoughtful look at the pain of loneliness and the  difference a friendship can make.

Director: Chloé Zhao

Hamnet introduces us to the early lives of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley). They are drawn together immediately, and their marriage and the birth of their first child. There is love and happiness, twins follow. Agnes encourages Will to go to London to build his future. As his success grows, their lives are ripped apart by the tragic loss of their son. The impact is profound, and the film explores the loss’s effects on Agnes and William and how it leads to the creation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Hamnet is not really a film about the creation of Hamlet. It’s not really even a film about William and Agnes, it is a touching study about grief, its impact and how people process it very differently.

For the first 30 minutes or so, I wasn’t sure this was working for me. People looking into the distance, along with the language and tempo. But by the end, I was totally won over by this incredible film.

It is a stunning portrait of life, grief and raw emotion. From the thrill of a new relationship, the growth of a family and the desire to see those you love succeed. But over time, it becomes hard, separated by work and distance. And when the most horrific tragedy strikes, the contrast in how William and Agnes respond exacerbates the pain they both feel.

The final act is a flawless piece of cinema, as Agnes heads to The Globe to see her husbands tragedy, “Hamlet”. And there she sees it, her husband’s hurt and grief on show for all the world to see. All done without a word between the main characters, with only the dialogue from those on stage, it’s all said through the facial expressions and eyes of Buckley’s Agnes.

Hamnet is Buckley’s film. Mescal is a perfect foil as the thoughtful and seemingly distant Shakespeare and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet, gives a powerful performance, especially as the film takes its darkest turn. But it is all about Jessie Buckley, every moment of love, sadness and grief writ large across her face. 

A stunning portrait of life, love, and grief.

Director: Craig Brewer

Based on the true story of Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman), a Milwaukee mechanic and recovering alcoholic whose true passion is performing. And Claire (Kate Hudson), a hairdresser, who shares the same love, performing as a Patsy Cline tribute act. When they meet, quickly they hit it off and when Claire encourages Mike to become a Neil Diamond interpreter, not impersonator, they create Lightning and Thunder: A Neil Diamond Experience. They quickly become a hit, drawing bigger crowds and turning their dreams to reality. But a devastating accident shatters everything they’ve built. With their future uncertain, Mike and Claire must find a way to rebuild their lives, rediscover their purpose, and whether their dream is strong enough to survive what life has thrown at them.

Song Sung Blue, is a charming warm hearted film. It’s about love, chasing a dream and doing the things you love with the people you love. It’s feel good and heart wrenching in equal measure, as you are swept along in the lives of its two main characters who you are desperate to see succeed.

The film is helped by excellent central performances from Jackman and Kate Hudson, both utterly believable and hugely engaging in their roles. They are also very well supported, especially from Ella Anderson and King Princess who play Claire and Mike’s daughters.

If there is a criticism, the film feels a little slow and cumbersome as it deals with the initial impact of a life changing event. But that is a minor gripe as it gets back on track as it moves into its final act.

The film is certainly at its best as it works its way through Neil Diamond classics, yes more than Sweet Caroline, but that’s mainly as Jackman and Hudson make such a compelling on screen act.

It’s a feel good story, full of charm, with fine performances and characters you are desperate to see succeed, even if it seems fate has other plans.

Director: Paul Feig

After the success of the “A Simple Favor” films, Paul Feig returns to the world of psychological thriller with, The Housemaid. Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is looking for a new chance and it comes when she gets the opportunity to become the live-in housemaid for Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) and her family, daughter CeCe (Indiana Elle) and her loving husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar). What, at first, seems the perfect job, soon starts to unravel, as the perfect veneer is peeled away to reveal a dark underbelly, where peoples pasts collide to become present day threats.

I do enjoy a Paul Feig thriller, and The Housemaid is no exception. The film revisits much of what worked in Feig’s A Simple Favor films. Two women, a doting husband caught in the middle, an undercurrent of something very wrong and hidden pasts, that are anything but in the past. All delivering and entertaining and smart thriller.

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney are both in fine form. Seyfried, in particular, as she flicks effortlessly from perfect wife to the seemingly unhinged and dangerous. Both are well supported by Sklenar’s perfect husband and Elizabeth Perkins, who shows up with a brief cameo as Andrew’s dominating mother.

The plot suitably twists and turns and keeps you guessing as it peels back the layers to reveal the dark secrets underneath. All leading to a wild final act where the reality of everyone’s past collides to deliver a tense and satisfying finale and a clever ending that sets up a sequel if anyone wants it.

It’s not perfect and probably runs a little long, spending perhaps too much time re-telling some of the story through a new lens. But overall, it is a smart and enjoyable thriller.

The Housemaid, while not perfect, is a smart and enjoyable thriller. If you enjoyed Feig’s A Simple Favor, you’ll find plenty here to enjoy. Sydney Sweeney and Seyfried are in fine form, delivering compelling performances and the story twists, turns, keeping you guessing until it reaches its wild and satisfying climax.

Director: Josh Safdie

Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a talented New York based table tennis player, his dream, to head to Japan to play in the world championship. But to get there is going to mean finding funding, luckily, Marty is not only a great player, he’s a hustler, ambitious and driven by a singular goal, to which he is prepared to use anything and anyone to achieve it. Can he get to Japan and what damage will he do on the way?

Marty Supreme is a story about pursuing a dream and the price you have to pay to get there. But it turns this premise on its head by making Marty an unlikeable character. While his drive and determination are to be admired, his willingness to take risks with anyone around him regardless of the consequences makes him impossible to pull for.

This twist on the underdog tale, is where some may struggle with the film. Whether the film is about someone who learns what’s truly important, or about how unscrupulous and unpleasant people can achieve what they want, is left for you to decide.

That said, it is credit to the film that it still works. Much of this is on Chalamet who puts in a fantastic performance full of energy and charisma, that makes Marty, for all of his flaws, very watchable. Performances across the board are strong, Odessa A’zion as Marty’s friend Rachel and Gwyneth Paltrow, as a fading movie star, are foils for Marty, both used by and using him for their own ends.

The story is a wild ride, as much a heist film as underdog tale. And for a film not really about table tennis, it does deliver an incredibly tense final match!

Marty Supreme, takes the underdog story and turns it on its head with a protagonist that’s hard to cheer for and how you feel about that may determine how much you enjoy the film. But what you certainly get is a wild ride, more heist film than underdog tale, and lit up by Timothée Chalamet’s central performance, full of energy and charisma. But he is hard to like and that may leave some feeling cold. But it’s original, a little crazy, with strong performances. It’s full of ping and pong!